Unsettling Signs of a Changing Sky

After leaving the Red Fruit Inn, Chen Rui wandered the streets, feeling as though something had been lost from his heart.

He had no idea what had happened in the woods of the Iron Fist Territory, nor did he know that another lonely sovereign was walking through the rain. He understood only one thing: Catherine had never been so close within reach, yet never so impossibly far away.

"You are the only man who has ever moved my heart."

"If one day you truly wish to conquer the Shadow Empire to fulfill some foolish desire, then even if you succeed, all you will gain will be my corpse."

Would they drift farther and farther apart? That solitary shadow, even without regret...

A faint sadness welled up in Chen Rui's heart. Then he suddenly froze and stopped, because someone was waiting for him ahead.

If the woman he had just left was the first woman in his life, then this was the first woman he had fallen in love with. She was not the most beautiful, nor was she the strongest, yet she was the woman he loved most—then and now.

"Athena..."

Ruby-like eyes gazed at him as she walked over. Before the eyes of countless people, she naturally and gently looped her arm through his. Though she was now Dark Moon's highest ruler and one of the Empire's three military giants, before him, she was still the same generous and gentle Athena.

The one who would always be worth cherishing.

After walking with him slowly for a while, Athena spoke. "She came?"

Back at Xilang Mountain, he had confessed his relationship with Christina to Athena. Among all his women, Athena alone knew the name "Christina." The others only vaguely knew that, before Athena, Chen Rui had once had a woman